Jaya Ganguly was born in a conservative Bengali family in Kolkata. In the year she graduated from the Indian College of Art, Kolkata. The figures depicted in her works are weird, distorted and express a certain anguish. Much of her childhood was spent in the vicinity of the famous Kali Temple of Kolkata. Her imagery is distinctly different that is conditioned by the constraints of her own tradition bound family and the Bengali society.
Personal visual language along with colours makes it vibrant and filled with energy. Her works depict dream images which border on the grotesque but are mysteriously beautiful. The figures are surreal, distorted, and express a certain inner torment. Her early, creative expressions of the nineteen eighties were greatly inspired by Goddess Kali and the world around Kalighat.
The prostitutes in particular fascinated Jaya as they represented freedom from the strict dictates imposed on women in conservative Bengali society. Simultaneously she empathized with their lives of drudgery and degradation. On this she produced a series of paintings entitled "Sex and Sorrow".
Her works depicts the hypocrisy in society and she paints social satire and genre subjects as well gods and goddesses. Her works can be considered as autobiographical. Jaya works in figurative expressions. Her name is to be reckoned in modern Indian art.
Her works are in important collections as Consulate of the Netherlands, New Delhi, NGMA, New Delhi, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi.
Exhibitions:
# 1984 First solo exhb., Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta.
# 1985, 88, 92, 98 Solo exhb., Art Heritage, New Delhi.
# 1987 Invited to participate, Festival of India, Sweden.
# 1987, 89 Young Faces in Contemporary Indian Art, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
# 1988 Solo exhb., Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai.
# 1988, 89 Participated in Young Faces in contemporary Indian Art, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
# 1989 Participated in Eastern Region Art Exhb., Calcutta.
# 1989 Eastern Region Art Exhb., Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta and Bombay.
# 1990 Group exhb., LTG Art Gallery, New Delhi.
# 1990 Participated in Calcutta 300 Exhb., Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta and Bombay.
# 1990 Solo exhb., Gallery 7, Bombay.
# 1991 Solo exhb., Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.
# 1991 Solo exhb., Le Gallery, Chennai.
# 1991 21 Contemporary Women Artists from India, Habiart Gallery, New Delhi.
# Nine Contemporary Artists from India, Gemeente Museum, Arnhem.
